Left 4 Dead 2

Thu, 26th Aug 2010 by Alfie.

These are the currently proposed maps for our group to play on Wednesdays, 8pm UK time.

The campaign titles are links to download sites. Download, unpack, double-click the VPK file to install.

For most L4D2 maps you will need to install the ‘Left 4 Dead 2 Add-on Support’ tool. Without this tool installed you are likely to see pink textures and missing model errors on player-made maps (amongst other issues): In Steam; View->Tools->double-click ‘Left 4 Dead 2 Add-on Support’.

*New 26/08* Detour Ahead - Valve recommended Community Map.

*New 12/08* 2 evil eyes l4d2 - Valve recommended Community Map.

*Updated 09/07* Badwater Basin (TF2) - As recommended by Valve. Originally for team fortress 2 and ported over for Left 4 Dead 2! I did not make this map and I added it so some other people can enjoy it. Have fun!

*Updated 30/06* City 17 - As recommended by Valve. This is a recreation of hl2ep1 part, which is perfectly suitable for l4d world.

*Updated 27/06* No Mercy 2 - The ‘No Mercy’ campaign from L4D made playable in L4D2.

*Updated 07/06* Left 4 DeadCity II Campaign - Kill plenty of zombies starting in RiverSide (city) then battling through the Back Alleys, over a Draw Bridge, at a Water Plant and during the escape at the Subway Station.

*Updated 08/05* Arena of the Dead 2 - Escort your companions across town and over the roof tops to the Arena. Hold off the legions of zombies until the Rescue Chopper arrives..

*08/04* Deadly Dispatch - The survivors find themselves holding out above a small garage. They must fight there way through the dark urban area’s and reach the local evacuation station located in warehouse seized by CEDA.

*26/02* Dead On Time 2 - Apparently, the military has setup an evacuation outpost at the train station… may as well head there…

*19/02* Dead Air Two - as the title suggest this is the 3rd campaign from the first game. with that said, this is only to tide us over until the pros on this site can finish theirs.

*17/12* Left 4 Cake 2 - Survivors find themselves imprisoned and must solve puzzles to advance through testing stages while defending themselves from the zombie infestation. Features: cooperative puzzles, random spawning puzzle objects, and changing paths.

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XBox Live Gamercard

Sun, 22nd Aug 2010 by Alfie.

I started out with a different (now disabled) ID, but here is my current XBox/Games for Windows Live gamer ID, AlfieUK4.

I only have Silver membership as I have never played on-line with the XBox 360, but fortunately we get multiplayer achievement recording for free on the PC

Its a shame that Microsoft didn’t start with a better base product or fix the massive early problems more quickly with Games for Windows Live, it could so easily have been the start of their answer to Valve’s Steam.

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I’m late to the party (XNA Game Studio)

Wed, 14th Jul 2010 by Alfie.

Visual Basic 6 and DirectX 8 are looking very long in the tooth now, pretty much dead, but where to go?

I dabbled briefly with an early version of XNA (Game Studio 2.0 I seem to recall) when I was looking at alternatives for game programming languages/libraries, but wasn’t particularly impressed with it. Yes, it allowed rapid development, and most of the basics were done for you, but it seemed slow, and required doing things in a particular way, and seemed more aimed at the casual 2D game market on the Xbox 360 (although it supports Windows development as well).

With the advent of XNA 4 (due later this year) I thought I’d have another look at it and so installed the latest iteration XNA Game Studio 3.1.

Install Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition

Install Microsoft XNA Game Studio 3.1

Visit the XNA Creators Club Online, in particular their Getting Started section (based upon XNA Game Studio 3.0)

The video tutorials walk you through all aspects of getting started with C#/XNA; setting up a Creators Club account, creating your first simple 2D and then 3D game, and there are ‘Starter Kits’ that help springboard you into different projects.

Bear in mind that you don’t need to purchase the full membership to develop games for both Windows and the Xbox 360, but you will only be able to deploy your games on Windows PCs without the full membership.

Its slicker than I remember, and much more streamlined, I’m actually going to give this another go

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Team Fortress 2 Free Weekend

Fri, 11th Jun 2010 by Alfie.

I have had a lot of fun with Team Fortress 2, over 200 hours and still going.

And Valve keep adding to this fun multi-player shooter, updating it with new upgrades, holiday game modes, etc.

Now, not only is Team Fortress 2 going to be released on the Mac, not only is it half price this weekend, it will also be free to play for this weekend so you can try it out and see if it it tickles your ‘multi-player frag fest with humorous upgrades’ bone

Check it out at Team Fortress 2 on Steam

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Anyone for Tennis?

Mon, 31st May 2010 by Alfie.

I played my first one hour of tennis in probably twenty years today.

It’s odd that considering that I have lived much of my life within walking distance of tennis courts I haven’t played on a proper court in that long.

Racquets have changed nowadays, all ultra-light and more springy than I remember, and in combination with an older body less capable of running and jumping, it took some time to get my eye back in and stop dropping shots short or firing them at the sky.

We never actually got to play a proper game as we learnt from our ‘knocking up’ that both us were seriously in need of practice, but we did keep going for pretty much the whole hour, so all that cycling has been helping my stamina if nothing else

Another session booked for the end of the week, time to practice serves and returns.

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In The Borderlands

Tue, 20th Apr 2010 by Alfie.

As I have been playing Borderlands recently, here is a music video from Machinima.com, which will show you some of the gameplay

YouTube - In The Borderlands (Borderlands Rock - Rap Music Video)

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Borderlands

Tue, 20th Apr 2010 by Alfie.

So, I’ve pretty much completed my first play through of Borderlands, solo.

Borderlands is playable as a solo First Person Shooter, but is really intended to be played co-operatively with up to 4 players.

Graphically Borderlands has a distinct style, slightly cartoon-y, and with an intriguing focusing system that sharpens up the detail when needed and leaves it a little fuzzy when you’re looking around or moving quickly. The detail in the level designs is amazing, with lots of clutter/junk to give a sense of life to the alien world that you are travelling through.

Sound is equally good, a well-balanced score, with some good up tempo combat/event music. Weapon and creature sound effects are well done, and the great voice acting is one of the first cues to the humour that runs throughout the game.

AI is ok, most enemies tend to charge straight at you, even the humans, although they will use cover and grenades at higher skill levels.

Gameplay-wise, the game structure is similar to an MMORPG, but without any real ‘grinding’ issues and minimal traditional RPG elements. If you play through all of the story missions and the side missions you should never have an issue with being too low level to tackle the next available missions.

The primary RPG elements are in each character’s ‘action skill’ broken into 3 paths of 21 skills (each skill has 5 levels), plus the bonuses that weapons/items give you in both ‘normal’ and ‘elemental’ bonuses.

All in all a good game with currently 3 DLC updates adding new zones and a 4th expected. I wish that I’d been able to go through this in co-op with a few friends, I expect that that makes it an even more fun experience.

Overall: 8 out of 10

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